February 18, 2010 9:06 AM
- Text
Pakistan: Detained Taliban Chief Talking
(CBS/AP)
Pakistan on Wednesday confirmed for the first time that it has the Afghan Taliban's No. 2 leader in custody, and officials said he was providing useful intelligence that was being shared with the United States.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was arrested around 10 days ago in a joint operation by CIA and Pakistani security forces in the southern port city of Karachi, U.S. and Pakistani officials said on condition of anonymity Tuesday. The army on Wednesday gave the first public confirmation of the arrest.
"At the conclusion of detailed identification procedures, it has been confirmed that one of the persons arrested happens to be Mullah Baradar," chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said in a written message to reporters. "The place of arrest and operational details cannot be released due to security reasons."
Baradar was the second in command behind Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and was said to be in charge of the day-to-day running of the organization's leadership council, which is believed based in Pakistan. He was a founding member of the Taliban and is the most important figure of the hardline Islamist movement to be arrested since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
The White House has declined to confirm Baradar's capture. Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the fight against extremists involves sensitive intelligence matters and he believes it's best to collect that information without talking about it.
Baradar, who also functioned as the link between Mullah Omar and field commanders, has been in detention for more than 10 days and was talking to interrogators, two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
One said Baradar had provided "useful information" to them and that Pakistan had shared it with their U.S. counterparts. A third official said Wednesday that Baradar was being held at an office of Pakistan's most powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, in Karachi.
CBS News chief national security correspondent David Martin reports that, between whatever laptops and cell phones he had at the time of his arrest, and what he knows, Baradar is a potential goldmine of intelligence.
"The unique thing about this individual was that he had been working for the Taliban for well over a decade," former CIA officer Bruce Riedel tells CBS News. "He knew the inside and outside of how the Taliban operates."
Officials call Baradar the linchpin of Taliban strategy in Afghanistan, and as Martin reports, his capture comes just as the U.S. and its allies have launched a major new offensive in Helmand province.
The Pakistani military officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Baradar's arrest suggests the Pakistani intelligence services are ready to deny Afghan militant leaders a safe haven in Pakistan - something critics have long accused them of doing.
Haroun Mir, a leading Afghan expert on the Taliban, tells CBS News Baradar's arrest is "the most important event in the war against the Taliban and the war on terrorism in years."
"The real significance is the change in the Pakistani policy," explains Mir.
U.S. and Afghan leaders "have been criticizing Pakistan for years for allowing the Taliban to move freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and now, by arresting Mullah Baradar, they have demonstrated in the strongest way a change in policy."
Read More Analysis from Haroun Mir in World Watch
The arrest may also push other insurgent leaders thought to be sheltering in Pakistan toward reconciliation talks with the Afghan government - a development increasingly seen as key to ending the eight-year war.
The arrest came shortly before U.S., Afghan and NATO troops launched a major offensive against militants in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in the southern province of Helmand, one of the regions that Baradar was believed to control. It is the largest operation in Afghanistan since President Barack Obama ordered a "surge" of 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
Washington has pressed Islamabad to crack down on Afghan Taliban believed to be staying in Pakistan, and to go after Pakistani Taliban groups who have strongholds in the country's northwest regions bordering Afghanistan. The CIA also has stepped up a campaign of missile strikes from unmanned planes that have killed dozens of suspected militants in recent months.
The latest strike came Wednesday, when a suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles at a home in the northwestern village of Tabbi Tool Khel in the North Waziristan tribal region, killing at least three people and wounding some others, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was arrested around 10 days ago in a joint operation by CIA and Pakistani security forces in the southern port city of Karachi, U.S. and Pakistani officials said on condition of anonymity Tuesday. The army on Wednesday gave the first public confirmation of the arrest.
"At the conclusion of detailed identification procedures, it has been confirmed that one of the persons arrested happens to be Mullah Baradar," chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said in a written message to reporters. "The place of arrest and operational details cannot be released due to security reasons."
Baradar was the second in command behind Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and was said to be in charge of the day-to-day running of the organization's leadership council, which is believed based in Pakistan. He was a founding member of the Taliban and is the most important figure of the hardline Islamist movement to be arrested since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
The White House has declined to confirm Baradar's capture. Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the fight against extremists involves sensitive intelligence matters and he believes it's best to collect that information without talking about it.
Baradar, who also functioned as the link between Mullah Omar and field commanders, has been in detention for more than 10 days and was talking to interrogators, two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
One said Baradar had provided "useful information" to them and that Pakistan had shared it with their U.S. counterparts. A third official said Wednesday that Baradar was being held at an office of Pakistan's most powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, in Karachi.
CBS News chief national security correspondent David Martin reports that, between whatever laptops and cell phones he had at the time of his arrest, and what he knows, Baradar is a potential goldmine of intelligence.
"The unique thing about this individual was that he had been working for the Taliban for well over a decade," former CIA officer Bruce Riedel tells CBS News. "He knew the inside and outside of how the Taliban operates."
Officials call Baradar the linchpin of Taliban strategy in Afghanistan, and as Martin reports, his capture comes just as the U.S. and its allies have launched a major new offensive in Helmand province.
The Pakistani military officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Baradar's arrest suggests the Pakistani intelligence services are ready to deny Afghan militant leaders a safe haven in Pakistan - something critics have long accused them of doing.
Haroun Mir, a leading Afghan expert on the Taliban, tells CBS News Baradar's arrest is "the most important event in the war against the Taliban and the war on terrorism in years."
"The real significance is the change in the Pakistani policy," explains Mir.
U.S. and Afghan leaders "have been criticizing Pakistan for years for allowing the Taliban to move freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and now, by arresting Mullah Baradar, they have demonstrated in the strongest way a change in policy."
Read More Analysis from Haroun Mir in World Watch
The arrest may also push other insurgent leaders thought to be sheltering in Pakistan toward reconciliation talks with the Afghan government - a development increasingly seen as key to ending the eight-year war.
The arrest came shortly before U.S., Afghan and NATO troops launched a major offensive against militants in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in the southern province of Helmand, one of the regions that Baradar was believed to control. It is the largest operation in Afghanistan since President Barack Obama ordered a "surge" of 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
Washington has pressed Islamabad to crack down on Afghan Taliban believed to be staying in Pakistan, and to go after Pakistani Taliban groups who have strongholds in the country's northwest regions bordering Afghanistan. The CIA also has stepped up a campaign of missile strikes from unmanned planes that have killed dozens of suspected militants in recent months.
The latest strike came Wednesday, when a suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles at a home in the northwestern village of Tabbi Tool Khel in the North Waziristan tribal region, killing at least three people and wounding some others, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
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